The Story of my Epic Super Blue Blood Moon Picture

Anyway, yesterday marked the first time a supermoon, lunar eclipse (blood moon), and blue moon occurred at the same in the USA in over 150 years! I posted some photography tips (including a video!) and hopefully those helped you capture something memorable and exciting.

I wanted to do something special and, well, epic for the event. Dallas was actually not a wonderful place to see the eclipse because peak eclipse would take place after the moon had set under the horizon. Dallas would, however, see the first part of maximum eclipse, so I figured I’d have the chance for a decent shot. The other problem was the humidity in Dallas being at a pretty high level right now so there was a layer of atmospheric haze close to the horizon…right where the moon was supposed to be. So what was I to do? I gave my buddies at Epic Helicopters a call.

I knew I wanted downtown Dallas in my shot and I didn’t really have any good downtown spots facing west-northwest (where the moon would end up) and I wanted to avoid the atmospheric haze so I figured one of their Robinson R44 helicopters would suffice.

Steven (from Epic) and I chatted and plotted out an approximate location where I felt the eclipse would be in a good spot. Way too early the next morning my buddy Braun and I made our way out to Epic’s private ramp in Fort Worth, Texas. The doors were off the helicopter (for the cleanest pictures) so we were all bundled up. We made our way into the sky and made it over to Dallas in about 18 minutes. We got in position right on time and began slow passes to get the best pictures. The eclipse was near total and the moon was in the perfect spot over Dallas.

I got The Picture.

Here’s a special Picture of the Week for all of you: Dallas Eclipsed.

For the photographers: shooting from a helicopter, especially in low light situations, is incredibly difficult and will strain just about any photography gear. Our pilot found some clean air and the stability allowed me to push the shutter speed and ISO as low as I possibly could. I ended up at 1/50s exposure at f1.4 and ISO 640 shooting with my Sony a7rIII and the Sony 50mm f1.4 lens. Post processing is really hard with these because you have to push the files as far as they can possibly go (and then some) while trying to retain a natural look and feel to the image but I managed to do it all in Lightroom, so that was nice. As always, please ask any questions you have in the comments below!

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